My husband doesn't get why I take riding lessons. "Don't you know how to ride already?"
My eyes almost got stuck from rolling to the back of my head.
Patiently, I explain that riding is like any other sport or ballet. If you want to improve your personal best you take lessons all your life. Plus, in riding it's not just the rider who has to learn, the rider has to help the horse learn as well.
In my case, lessons have a dual purpose: 1) How I can help Annie keep calm and collected so she can keep her mind on the job and 2) How can I use my legs more, my reins less. All this amounts to having increasingly pleasant rides, whether it's a day for an all-out workout or more of a Sunday in the park kind of ride.
Today's ride challenged me to remember both. It was a very windy day. Yesterday the temperature dropped from hot 80 to 60 degrees F in less than half an hour. I love this temperature but not many people with horses love a strong wind.
1) Keeping Annie calm while the air, leaves and sounds were whipping around required psychological work more than anything. Zen-like I murmered my mantra to her as we walked out, "I am your brain, I have you safe, all is well." I breathe slowly, sit deeply in the saddle, hug her softly with my legs and hold her firmly but gently on the bit. As Pam, my trainer, instructed me in Lesson #Y, as soon as Annie gets prancy in the feet and starts doing her nervous side-step dance, I have to fight my instinct to lean forward out of the saddle and haul back on the reins. Instead I have to remember to do the opposite. I sit down and tall, give her a strong leg cue to move forward and loosen the rein just enough to give her room to walk on. As soon as she responds to me, I loosen the rein even more and relax my leg as a sign she is doing well.
Today there were opportunities galore to practice this lesson! Another thing we do is keep her occupied so she doesn't have enough time to look around for things to spook at. In Lesson #Z Pam said, "Whatever she wants to do, do the opposite." If she wants to go to the right, I turn her and we head left. If she wants to trot, we slow done and walk. I keep her mind on me by working her through serpentines, small circles, big circles, upward and downward transitions, until she had clearly forgotten about the wind and we could just enjoy the ride.
That's when I got to work.
2) The second part of the lesson, use legs more, reins less, is where the work becomes not just psychological but physical, more for me, not so much for Annie. To use your legs well you've got to have the muscle to back up the aide. Sally Swift would say, 'Think of your legs as though they could reach the ground.' That's a lot of leg and that what a good rider has.
Lately we've been practicing canter departs. Pam tells me that I need to do more than just cue her with an outside nudge behind the girth. I need to have a firm inside leg as well. "Using both legs, lift her up into the canter. It's as if you are lifting her forehand so that she can easily find the right lead and lightly take off." The first time I did this Annie did the rocking horse thing, anchoring her hind end and lifting up and... Bam! The right lead, no chasing her into the canter.
Today I forgot about my inside leg and Annie just trotted faster when I asked for the canter. Three depart efforts later I figured out where we... I should say 'I' (Sorry, Annie)... went wrong. I squeezed with both legs, outside leg behind the girth. Bam, she found the right lead, turned around and Bam, found the left. By then it was time to wrap up and have a treat.
Slowly over the summer I've gotten stronger and, I'm proud to say, it shows in more confident, and more pleasant riding even on a windy day.
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